Featured Blogger: Jonny Blair

Whether you blog for fun or for pay, it’s always great to make a connection to other bloggers and writers with similar interests. That’s why once in a while, you’ll see a featured writer on multitalentedwriters.com.

Show our featured bloggers some love by checking out their blogs and leaving a comment.

 

Featured Writer: Jonny Blair, MultiTalented Writers

 

This week’s featured writer speaks my language: “no one is only interested in only one niche in life.” Read on to find out more about this globe-trotting, word-inventing, soccer-loving MultiTalented Writer.

 

 

1. What is your name and where are you located?

My name is Jonny Blair. I was born in Northern Ireland but I now live in Poland. It has been my base since 2016. In the intervening years I also tried to live and settle in England, Uruguay, Hong Kong, Australia and Kyrgyzstan.

 

2. Tell us about your blog!

I have numerous blogs in different niches but my main blog is called simply Northern Irishman In Poland and it covers daily life as a foreigner living in Poland as well as showing the rest of the world how great a country Poland is. It’s a blog which delves into many topics from Polish food to Polish history to finding a flat in Poland to Polish football.

My longest running blog however is a global travel blog. It’s called Don’t Stop Living and has been running since 2007. That blog gives travel tips and advice for tourists as well as documenting my once nomadic 165 country journey around the world. This is the blog with which I started to make money.

I have some other blogs on football, travel and poetry.

 

3. Why do you choose to write in multiple niches?

The main reason is because I am honest and I write from the heart about what I love in life. In life I don’t only love one niche so therefore my blogs cover all my passions from travels to crazy adventures to poetry to music to football to bars and cafes.

 

4. Do you blog and write as a hobby, as a part-time job, or do you do it for full-time income?

All of the above. I started writing about football when I was 10 years old. It was always just a passion and a hobby. I wrote for football and music fanzines as a teenager.

Then in my twenties I started travelling around the world and in 2007 I started my first ever travel blog, Don’t Stop Living. At the start I was blogging and writing for fun and as a hobby. But by 2012 I was earning money as a blogger, writer, copywriter and itinerary planner so it turned into a business.

I was writing full-time for a few years, but these days I have reverted to mixing up my writing with teaching and social media marketing to give my life more stability and direction. So I still blog as a hobby sometimes and can be classed as a part-time or full-time blogger, depending on how hard I work week to week.

 

5. Do you blog on your own platform, for companies, for publications, or for a mixture of these?

Again it’s all of these! I have around 10 of my own blogs so I am mostly blogging on my own platforms. But I also write sponsored posts, guest posts and articles for other companies. I sometimes write for travel websites such as Boots n All, Culture Trip and We Blog The World.

 

6. Where have you been published? 

I have been published on over 300 websites; about 10 football magazines/fanzines; national, regional and international newspapers and government brochures or websites.

I have also appeared on national radio in Poland, Hong Kong, England and Northern Ireland and have been featured on Podcasts based on travel. As a writer it is important for me to be relentless in promotion whether spoken, visual, written or online.

I have also written scripts for travel tours and planned itineraries and mobile telephone applications.

 

7. Why do you believe multi-niche writing is beneficial?

To ensure honesty and sincerity from the writer. Nobody is interested in only one niche in life. We must represent our true selves when we enter the public sphere.

 

8. Is there anything you would like to add?

I invent my own words and phrases to describe the emotions and feelings I attempt to convey. I do this due to my disillusion and disappointment how the English language (especially) is misused in this modern day and age. Beautiful used to mean beautiful. Couple should only ever mean two of something. Off the beaten track should be remote, isolated and airportless. Since those words became misused I found it hard to write what I mean so I invented words such as stunnigating, off the wheaten craic and whackpacking.

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Mariana Abeid-McDougall is a writer, a wife, and a homeschooling mom in an out-of-the-box, adventurous family. She's on a mission to show the world that writers don't need to niche to be successful. She hopes you'll join the conversation on the MultiTalented Writers blog.

4 thoughts on “Featured Blogger: Jonny Blair”

  1. What a blast! Love those invented words. And very inspiring to hear you say that to be true to oneself, one must be multi! Wonderful interview and nice to meet you, Jonny!

    Reply
  2. Wow, what a discovery!
    SO many ideas and aspects of your life Jonny are echoed in my life – the abuse of the English language,{having taught English Language and Literature from 1970 to 2000}
    Your insistence on ‘honesty’ – being yourself. I could go on….
    and I will very soon! dvm1946@mail.com

    Reply

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